Chapter 16 5. Guillotine

Ichiro climbed up the dark corridor, suddenly remembered something, even he who was not afraid of anything, couldn't help but feel a shudder in his heart, and tightened his grip on the pistol strapped to his waist. Although it is broad daylight, this is walking in the ghost tower that everyone has heard of.The stairs are dark and winding, and behind the digital dial above the head is a complex mechanical room that can't be seen at a glance, and there are many corners where people can hide.Could it be that the note pasted on the digital dial is a trap set by villains?Did he use the dim light in the tower to wait for an opportunity to kill the victim who was lured by the note and climbed up?

Ichiro is an unyielding person, never afraid of any threats, so he did not return the same way.He held the pistol tightly in front of his chest, looked around every time he went up a step, and walked up cautiously step by step. come yet?come yet?Ichiro was ready to meet the enemy's sneak attack, but unexpectedly, he arrived at the top mechanical room safely. The mechanical room is quite large and can be called a small factory.The gigantic gear sets rattled and engaged with each other. Inside was the heart of the clock—the iron box, which contained the most important clockwork mechanisms, as well as iron columns, iron crossbars, iron shafts, and other complex components. Shadows cast by instruments.Above the head is a three-foot-diameter pendulum, swinging clumsily from side to side, making the sound of metal rolling.

Ichiro stood in the corner of the mechanical room, listening with bated breath.He expected that the monster would pop out like a bullet, and he didn't dare to slack off or relax his grip on the gun at all. Unexpectedly, there was no movement after waiting for a long time.Ichiro's eyes closely searched around the machine, carefully inspecting every corner, but found nothing suspicious. He couldn't help but smile wryly at the desperation he had faced since he entered the Ghost Tower, and felt ashamed of his overly cautious defensive posture.With a wry smile, he pocketed the pistol and approached the back of the digital dial.

Near the top of his head, there is an astonishingly thick clock needle axis (in fact, it is more appropriate to say the axis), and two large holes commonly known as the eyes of the ghost tower are coiled at chest height.These two holes imitate the appearance of the winding holes of ordinary clocks and watches, and have no special purpose. They have a certain decorative function and also have the function of lighting. Ichiro vaguely remembered that the note was pasted just below the round hole on the left when viewed from the back of the dial.So, he poked his head out to determine the position of the paper, leaned out vigorously, and stretched out his right hand to try to tear it off.It's a pity that it was so close that it couldn't reach it.He turned his head and quickly searched the entire mechanical room, looking for something like a wooden stick, but he couldn't find a suitable one for a while.

Ichiro stood there blankly for a while, thinking about what to do.Suddenly, his face changed drastically, as if he saw something extremely frightening, his body tensed up, and his round eyes stared straight at a certain point in the air.He concentrated on listening with all his strength, and seemed to hear a strange sound. Not the clunk of a great pendulum.Undoubtedly, it was the flute again, the mournful melody that always sounded when monsters did their crimes. No, the monster is going to take another innocent life.But where?To whom?It's impossible, no one in the house will climb on the roof again.At this moment, Ichiro couldn't see any of the victims.Even so, the flute was apparently coming from the roof outside the tower.

In order to find the flute player, Ichiro poked out the hole of the digital dial again without hesitation, and looked at the roof of the bungalow below, but he still didn't see a single figure. The monster might be hiding behind the clock tower.Judging by the sound of the flute, the guy seems to be walking around on the roof, and may appear on the side of the digital dial soon.No matter what, Ichiro wanted to see the true face of the monster with his own eyes, so he stretched his neck and waited patiently. But at this moment, a funny thing that had never been seen before happened, which made people laugh.

From the moment before, Ichiro felt an indescribable pressure on the back of his neck, but he was so engrossed on the roof that he didn't have time to think about what that meant.However, the oppressive feeling increased little by little, and gradually turned into an unbearable dull pain, which he finally couldn't stand. At first, Ichiro just felt baffled, and guessed that the monster was sneaking up from above while he was negligent, and he was suddenly terrified.In the next moment, he noticed that what seemed to be on the back of his neck was a kind of machine. Needless to say, Ichiro shrank his head reflexively, but it was too late.Oppressed by invisible objects, his jaw was stuck on the edge of the hole, and no matter how hard he struggled, he couldn't retract his head back into the room smoothly.

The pain in the neck continued to intensify, and Ichiro finally realized what was tormenting him, and couldn't help but burst out laughing.Is there really such a ridiculous thing in the world?It is the pointer of the big clock that presses the neck.He said it was a pointer, but it was like a steel sword with a length of one foot and a width of one foot. The wedge-shaped tip was slowly inserting itself into the flesh of the back of his neck.Ichiro continued to push hard, trying to lift the pointer with the strength of his neck.However, the mechanical power of the clockwork is so strong that the hands do not move at all.The harder he tried to break free, the more his neck hurt like it was about to split.

The sight in front of me was so stupid that it made people want to laugh out loud.It's so sad, the strength of poor human beings is really insignificant, and they can't control the huge mechanical power at all. It was too embarrassing and undignified, so Ichiro hesitated again and again, unwilling to speak out for help.While hesitating, the big pendulum swung again, and the pointer pressed down a little more mercilessly.The pain has exceeded the limit he can bear. Ichiro couldn't hold back, and shouted for help.A 30-year-old young gentleman who had returned from overseas was screaming with a needle stuck in his neck.However, no one would come to save him even if he shouted for help with all his strength.No one in the family knew that he had climbed the clock tower, and even if the wail from mid-air reached the ground, who would have guessed that someone was struggling in such a place?

Ichiro could only look at the distant empty ground.There are guards at the front and rear gates, but the roof blocks the view and is completely invisible from this angle.Within two or three towns outside the wall are uninhabited hills. He listened carefully, and the weird flute sound had stopped before he knew it.It turned out that the music was just a trap to lure him to poke his head out of the round hole, and the villain had expected all this.After the goal is achieved, it disappears without a trace. Ah, the guillotine on the big clock.How strange and incomprehensible the idea is, how it fits the mind-style of a magician!The sword made of steel has no heart or heart, nor will it burst into compassion. The pointer turns firmly, minute by minute, without compromise, and does not stop because of a flesh and blood head underneath.

Ichiro kept screaming, the carotid artery was compressed more and more tightly, his face was flushed, distorted, and extremely ugly.His hair stood on end, his bloodshot eyes were wide open, and the eyeballs seemed to fall out at any moment. At this time, the neck bone made a "crack, click" sound. Due to the strong compression of the trachea, Ichiro's breathing became more and more difficult. When his life was at stake, Ichiro's bursting pupils caught a glimpse of a note pasted on the dial, which read: Oh, what a ridiculous irony, the villain actually wrote down the precise time of the victim's death on that piece of paper, and it was exactly twenty-one minutes when the long needle passed through the round hole.